UNIVERSITY students face less tuition time as fees increase, claimed a study.

Teaching has been reduced to just five or six hours per week in some courses, particularly arts and social science degrees.

The survey of universities showed marked differences in the amount of time given to tutorials depending on the subject.

Next October, students will start to pay a flat rate of £3,000 a year for most courses, regardless of tuition time.

The survey of 11 subjects at 10 new and traditional universities showed engineering students received between 16 and 30 hours' tuition a week, while history of art students had as little as five hours.

Bristol University offered six hours for history of art, English and politics but 15 for French and 12 for geography and maths.

Students who enrol for chemistry at York University can expect 25 hours of tuition time, while those studying mechanical engineering offered 21 hours of lectures and practicals.

However, only five hours a week was allocated for history of art students.

Nottingham offered 22 hours for chemistry tutorials but fell to nine for history of art.

But Plymouth and Oxford Brookes both allocated 12 hours for art history.

Some departments insisted that higher education was about self-directed study guided by world class experts.